Teen girls taking diet pills in ‘strive for ideal’

Three out of four teenage girls have either tried or considered dieting, while 6% have taken diet pills.

A survey of the unhealthy eating habits of some teen girls also found two in five do not eat breakfast every day, and almost two-thirds of those who tried dieting said it was to lose weight.

Yet for a generation often portrayed as obsessive about body image, more than half eat treats once a day and more than one third (37%) have one or more fizzy drinks — even though the average 330ml can of coca- cola contains approximately nine spoons of sugar. Sugary drinks are regularly blamed as drivers of obesity — since the 1990s there has been a twofold increase in obesity rates among teenage girls.